1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for technical support routing among members of a technical support group.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Due to the growing complexity of modern computer systems, users of such computer systems often experience problems during the operation of a computer system. Such a problem may arise from a hardware malfunction, software malfunction, or through user error. When such a problem is unresolved by the user, the user may rely on a technical support group to assist in resolving the problem. When reporting the problem to the technical group, the problem is typically initially addressed by lower levels of support that are unaware of any actions a user may have taken in attempting to resolve the problem prior to reporting the problem. As such, users having advanced technical knowledge or experience often waste significant time and the support group increases cost by duplicating actions already taken by the user. Current methods of routing the problem to a higher level of support include providing automated systems, such as telephone systems, that present a user a multitude of solutions to simple problems before allowing the user to contact a member of the technical support group.